Paul: Civil rights 'settled' law

Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul acknowledged Thursday that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was necessary to foster racial integration, a day after stumbling into a political mess by dodging questions about whether he would have voted for the law.

Appearing on Laura Ingraham's show to do some clean-up after Wednesday's interviews, Paul said: "There was a need for federal intervention to say that you can't have segregation, that we shouldn't be doing that."

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The Republican accused liberals of trying to portray him as a racist for expressing philosophical concerns about the role of government in desegregating private business, explaining that he was not interested in revisiting the law.

"These are settled issues," Paul said. "I have no intention of bringing up anything related to the Civil Rights Act."

Apparently recognizing the dangerous political waters he put himself in, and trying to stop the story from growing out of control, Paul reiterated: "In no way do I favor any type of institutional racism or segregation or discrimination or any of that."

Paul repeatedly carped that it was the "loony left" that was after him. But the conservative Ingraham, in an otherwise sympathetic chat, asked Paul why he had agreed to an interview with MSNBC's liberal Rachel Maddow in the first place.

"You're right," he admitted. "It was a poor political decision, probably won't be happening anytime in the near future."